WSJ finally gets it with employment numbers

The New York Post business columnist John Crudelle writes Thursday that The Wall Street Journal finally understands that the government’s jobs numbers may not be accurate.

Crudelle wrote, “It only took the nation’s most prominent business newspaper a decade and a half to figure it out, but the Job Market’s Strength May Have Been Overstated.

“That was the headline the other day in The Wall Street Journal, which considers itself the nation’s pre-eminent financial newspaper.

“And in many ways it is the best at what it does, except when it comes to getting its nose real close to the government’s economic statistics and figuring out why they don’t smell quite right.

“As I’ve been saying for the past 15 or so years (yeah, it seems longer to me, too) the government’s monthly employment report stinks.

“The Journal – as well as its sister publication, Barron’s, and The New York Times – suddenly discovered that Washington’s numbers don’t jibe with figures compiled on a quarterly basis by the individual states.

“And like a bunch of babies who’ve just discovered their navels, these publications are now gazing excessively at the hole in the job figures.”

Read more here. The Post is owned by News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, who is currently trying to acquire Dow Jones & Co., the Journal’s parent.